That was my good friend and minor seminary underclassman Boiti shoving me a copy of the Philippine Star yesterday with the story of the erudite Ding Cervantes titled NP to field GMA’s cabalen for speaker. It read:
A Pampanga congresswoman perceived to be an ally of President Arroyo is seriously eyeing the speakership of the 15th Congress, leading to a possible showdown with the outgoing president for the post.
Mrs. Arroyo’s “cabalen,” 4th district re-electionist Rep. Anna York Bondoc, said yesterday she plans to pursue the House speakership regardless of reports that the President is also interested in it.
Bondoc, of the Nacionalista Party (NP), is a granddaughter of the late former Senate president Gil Puyat and daughter of the late Rep. Emigdio Bondoc.
Mrs. Arroyo is running for Congress in the second district of this province and local voters say she is expected to win. NP standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar was at the Bondoc family residence here last Sunday to attend the 41st birthday party of Bondoc’s elder brother Rimpy, who had served three terms (For the record: Rimpy served only two terms, 1998-2004,running for governor in 2004)as congressman in the fourth district.
She said Villar “took note” of her plans to seek the speakership.
“Anna, Rimpy and I are family. We would discuss and consider Anna’s plans. It would then be discussed by the members of the House but definitely the NP would field its candidate and we will see,” Villar said.
Bondoc made no reservations about her intentions regardless of reports that if Mrs. Arroyo wins a congressional seat, which in most likelihood she will, the outgoing president plans to seek the House speakership.
“The President and I are friends. We belong to different political parties. I am with NP and she is with the Lakas-Kampi-CMD. Besides, she (Arroyo) has not made any statement she would like to be speaker,” Bondoc said.
She stressed that she has always been independent from the dominant political party in the President’s home province. She ran under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) in 2004, and then under the NP in 2007…
Bondoc said she was egged on by some sectors to seek the speakership, although she did not identify who they were.
“They are fed up with a Congress whose image is such that it does not fare well in surveys. It’s a Congress that has lost touch with the people,” she said.
Bondoc said she believed she is “eminently qualified” to become speaker as she could also represent the youth that comprise a majority of Filipinos.
So what’s this racket about Macabebes?
So have you, of all people, who fed on history morning, noon and night at the seminary, forgotten?
What is it I should remember?
The capture of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines, in 1901 in Palanan, Isabela by American troops led by Gen. Frederick Funston with the “able and willing” assistance of Macabebe Scouts…
I see, so Anna York Bondoc-Sagum of Macabebe is in effect doing to GMA what her townmates of a century ago did to Aguinaldo?
Yes, and the similarities only start there. In Aguinaldo’s capture, Funston and a handful of his men pretended to be captives of the Macabebes, who were dressed in rayadillos, the Philippine Army uniform. They were supposed to be presented to Aguinaldo, but once they got into the encampment, they immediately subdued Aguinaldo’s guards and captured him.
So how does that tally with your idea of Bondoc-Sagum’s so-called betrayal of GMA?
Bondoc-Sagum was an almost-permanent fixture in GMA’s foreign trips. In practically all presidential visits to the province – at least before the idea of her running for the House germinated – Bondoc-Sagum was there too, a la dama de presidentita. If I am not mistaken, GMA even stood as godmother to Bondoc-Sagum’s grand wedding to that mayor of San Luis town.
So?
Dummy, can’t you see the lady solon’s feigned captivity to GMA as no more a foil than Funston’s “captivity” by the Macabebes in order to strike at the President? Yeah, the Macabebes live on!
I’m a dummy, dumb as any dummy can ever be. I wonder how the congresswoman-wanting-to-be-Speaker-too will take this.
